The present invention relates to a marking arrangement on a receiver aircraft for enhancing the visual and depth perception of a boom operator in a tanker or other aircraft during a mid-air refueling operation or other aircraft to aircraft operations.
By way of background, the risks and error rates for mid-air refueling and other operations are dramatically increased by homogenous non-reflective darker colors on the receiver aircraft and/or adverse light conditions, such as occur at night, at dusk, or in clouds. Operators engaged in these tasks can experience higher rates of misalignments and misjudgments when under stress or when lighting and viewing conditions are less than optimal. The resulting errors can have disastrous consequences, particularly if the fuel boom strikes the windscreen or other critical areas of the receiver aircraft.
By way of further background, it is known to mark portions of a receiver aircraft to aid in the insertion of the fuel boom of a tanker aircraft into the fuel receiving receptacle of the receiver aircraft. The present invention is an improvement over the prior marking arrangement.